April 5, 2008 71 Comments

Twitter as Presence

twitter Twice, on two different occasions yesterday, I used Twitter to see why someone hadn’t responded to an email. I didn’t send them a message via that channel (because that just seems obnoxious). Instead, I checked into their Twitter stream to see what they’d been up to throughout the day. In one case, the person was at a conference. In the other, I wasn’t sure, but the person hadn’t sent a message in hours, so he or she was clearly offline for a little duration of time.

Twitter is a lot more than talking about your cat. It can do a lot more things than we’re currently doing with it. It’s not the end-all of the universe, but there’s more here for business users than meets the eye. And I know three ways I’d implement this at a mid-sized or enterprise-level corporation that would be immediately useful from a process improvement, reduced costs, and instant ROI point of view.

How else are you using Twitter?

Related posts:

  1. Twitter Revisited
  2. Stowe Boyd Explains What Problem Twitter Solves
  3. Commuter Feed-Twitter as a Platform
  4. Twitter as an Advisory Board
  5. 5 Starter Moves – Facebook LinkedIN and Twitter

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  • http://withavoicelikethis.com Jim Goodrich

    Aren’t you negating your inbox zero boundaries by using Twitter to micromanage your e-mail in that example?

  • http://withavoicelikethis.com Jim Goodrich

    Aren’t you negating your inbox zero boundaries by using Twitter to micromanage your e-mail in that example?

  • http://withavoicelikethis.com Jim Goodrich

    Aren’t you negating your inbox zero boundaries by using Twitter to micromanage your e-mail in that example?

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Don Lafferty: sometimes I choose to tweet, sometimes I choose not to tweet. I guess Twitter can be your personal spin doctor.

    Chris: two major uses of Twitter are (1) to find out about breaking news (for example, I learned of Charlton Heston’s death on Twitter) and (2) for technical support.

    Also, as I noted earlier (via Twitter, of course), if you really want to detect someone’s presence, their FriendFeed account (or other lifestream aggregator) might be a better tool. Sometimes I’m tweeting, sometimes I’m publishing in other ways.

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Don Lafferty: sometimes I choose to tweet, sometimes I choose not to tweet. I guess Twitter can be your personal spin doctor.

    Chris: two major uses of Twitter are (1) to find out about breaking news (for example, I learned of Charlton Heston’s death on Twitter) and (2) for technical support.

    Also, as I noted earlier (via Twitter, of course), if you really want to detect someone’s presence, their FriendFeed account (or other lifestream aggregator) might be a better tool. Sometimes I’m tweeting, sometimes I’m publishing in other ways.

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Don Lafferty: sometimes I choose to tweet, sometimes I choose not to tweet. I guess Twitter can be your personal spin doctor.

    Chris: two major uses of Twitter are (1) to find out about breaking news (for example, I learned of Charlton Heston’s death on Twitter) and (2) for technical support.

    Also, as I noted earlier (via Twitter, of course), if you really want to detect someone’s presence, their FriendFeed account (or other lifestream aggregator) might be a better tool. Sometimes I’m tweeting, sometimes I’m publishing in other ways.

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Don Lafferty: sometimes I choose to tweet, sometimes I choose not to tweet. I guess Twitter can be your personal spin doctor.

    Chris: two major uses of Twitter are (1) to find out about breaking news (for example, I learned of Charlton Heston’s death on Twitter) and (2) for technical support.

    Also, as I noted earlier (via Twitter, of course), if you really want to detect someone’s presence, their FriendFeed account (or other lifestream aggregator) might be a better tool. Sometimes I’m tweeting, sometimes I’m publishing in other ways.

  • http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/ Ontario Emperor

    Don Lafferty: sometimes I choose to tweet, sometimes I choose not to tweet. I guess Twitter can be your personal spin doctor.

    Chris: two major uses of Twitter are (1) to find out about breaking news (for example, I learned of Charlton Heston’s death on Twitter) and (2) for technical support.

    Also, as I noted earlier (via Twitter, of course), if you really want to detect someone’s presence, their FriendFeed account (or other lifestream aggregator) might be a better tool. Sometimes I’m tweeting, sometimes I’m publishing in other ways.

  • http://stuandrews.com Stu

    I’m still really testing the waters. I need to find out the better services out there for Twitter.

    But what I use it right now is for a dual-flow. One being *spark* information that will get an idea or conversation going based on something totally irrelevant.

    The other way is *gossip* really. Keeping up with what the people I follow are doing.

  • http://stuandrews.com Stu

    I’m still really testing the waters. I need to find out the better services out there for Twitter.

    But what I use it right now is for a dual-flow. One being *spark* information that will get an idea or conversation going based on something totally irrelevant.

    The other way is *gossip* really. Keeping up with what the people I follow are doing.

  • http://stuandrews.com Stu

    I’m still really testing the waters. I need to find out the better services out there for Twitter.

    But what I use it right now is for a dual-flow. One being *spark* information that will get an idea or conversation going based on something totally irrelevant.

    The other way is *gossip* really. Keeping up with what the people I follow are doing.

  • http://stuandrews.com Stu

    I’m still really testing the waters. I need to find out the better services out there for Twitter.

    But what I use it right now is for a dual-flow. One being *spark* information that will get an idea or conversation going based on something totally irrelevant.

    The other way is *gossip* really. Keeping up with what the people I follow are doing.

  • http://stuandrews.com Stu

    I’m still really testing the waters. I need to find out the better services out there for Twitter.

    But what I use it right now is for a dual-flow. One being *spark* information that will get an idea or conversation going based on something totally irrelevant.

    The other way is *gossip* really. Keeping up with what the people I follow are doing.

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  • http://www.savetubevideo.com youtube downloader

    Twitter is a lot more than talking about your cat. It can do a lot more things than we’re currently doing with it. It’s not the end-all of the universe, but there’s more here for business users than meets the eye

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